Not all Meanings of "But" Are Equal!

When students need to say "but" and "but rather" in Spanish, they are often uncertain how to say it. The questions dealt with in this brief article can help you or your students avoid a multitude of grammatical tangles. The terms "pero," "sino" and "sino que" arfe not interchangeable!

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Much Depends on Whether You Start Out on a Positive Note

The word pero means but -- an adversative conjunction. It is adversative because it redirects the statement immediately preceding it. It is a conjunction because it will be followed by a clause -- containing a conjugated verb. The word pero is used when the introductory clause is an affirmative statement and when what follows does not contradict it but adds to it in some way:

Vamos al teatro pero primero tenemos que comer (We're going to the theater but first we have to eat).

If the introductory statement is negative, then sino is used. It also translates as but. However, what follows sinocontradicts the opening statement. After sino, no conjugated verb is used. Instead, a noun, an adjective or an infinitive may be used:

Juan no es estudiantesinoprofessor (Juan isn't a student, but rather a professor). Note that student and professor are nouns.

Juan no es altosinobajo (Juan isn't tall, but rathershort). Note that alto and bajo are adjectives.

Juan no quiere estudiarsinomirar una película (Juan doesn't want to study, but ratherto watch a movie). Note that estudiar and mirar are infinitives.

If such negative statements are followed by a conjugated verb, then que must follow sino -- it is the function of que to introduce a subordinated clause. Clauses, by definition, contain conjugated verbs. Notice that unlike the previous example using an infinitive as the point of contrast, in the following examples, the first clause also concludes with a conjugated verb.

Juan no estudiasino quetrabaja (Juan doesn't study, but rather he works).

Juan no es amable sino quemaltrata a todos sus colegas (Juan isn't friendly, but rather he mistreats his coworkers).

References

Author's more than 20 years experience teaching and translating Spanish.

Spanish Usage

The articles in this series deal with various questions about the right choice of word or phrase when English may have one or two structures but Spanish has more. They often deal with prepositional issues.